Oil Change, Basic Question for Mechanics

viper69 · Post by **viper69** » 16 Jun 2011, 18:08

I was going to get my oil changed at NTB. NTB only uses Valvoline. My 850GLT, non Turbo, has always had Castrol GTX.

So I ask the oil change guy, "Do you have Castrol GTX?", He tells me "No, you wouldn't want to use Castrol GTX, have you ever taken an engine apart, that stuff will turn to syrup and do all sorts of bad things to your engine, use Valvoline"

Now, I'm no oil expert, however, my car is a 95, with 110k miles on it. I have never had a problem with Castrol GTX at all.

Is he crazy, and just trying to sell me on Valvoline? I think so. OR, am I just lucky?

I find it hard to believe that if the product was that bad, it would still be sold for so long.

Any thoughts?

Post by **IVIUSTANG** » 16 Jun 2011, 18:22

How old was the mechanic who was talking to you? Many moons ago there were a few problems with sludge from Castrol, but I believe it is all up to snuff now. In my opinion he is more misinformed than actually just trying to sell you a product. Use either, they are both fine oils.

- Jesse

Post by **bigdaddylee82** » 16 Jun 2011, 18:39

Just trying to make a sell. Have heard the same thing about Pennzoil, which hasn't had any legitimacy to the sludge claim since the 70's. With modern oils, no brand "causes sludge," neglect and poor maintenance cause sludge.

A lot of older mechanics/gear heads still live by the XXX brand causes sludge mantra.

- Lee

gilhuly · Post by **gilhuly** » 16 Jun 2011, 18:51

He's full of it. Frequency of oil change and keeping the level correct is a hell of a lot more significant than which oil you put in, particularly with older cars that figure out ways to get rid of oil on you via leakage mostly.

Post by **Juan62** » 16 Jun 2011, 19:17

It will be your choice. However, while serving in the military in Germany, the guys told me to use only Mobil-1 full synthetic, Volvos, BMWs, MERC, Audi, and Porche. Since the car is European, I did for my S70 and previous 850.

viper69 · Post by **viper69** » 18 Jun 2011, 14:19

Thanks people, that's just what I thought. There's no need for synthetic in my opinion, but I'm no oil expert.

Post by **ronaldo2526** » 18 Jun 2011, 15:20

I have been told by a chemical engineer that synthetic oil has a single bond rather than a double bond.

Right now my car (1996 850 turbo) has a clogged PVC. When I run regular oil, you can see the smoke. If I put synthetic oil in it, it is still burning the oil and I can smell it, but you can't see it.

Don't know what that means under normal conditions.

Post by **misha** » 18 Jun 2011, 15:56

ronaldo2526 wrote:I have been told by a chemical engineer that synthetic oil has a single bond rather than a double bond.

Right now my car (1996 850 turbo) has a clogged PVC. When I run regular oil, you can see the smoke. If I put synthetic oil in it, it is still burning the oil and I can smell it, but you can't see it.

When engine starts to burn oil...when you use thinner oil there is higher oil consumption and normally,more blue smoke from the exhaust.

Thicker oil=less oil consumption and less or no blue smoke from the exhaust.

When i say thicker i mean at second viscosity index.

However...one of the reasons why your car burns oil could be because of the clogged pcv system.

Post by **misha** » 18 Jun 2011, 16:00

viper69 wrote:...There's no need for synthetic in my opinion, but I'm no oil expert.

Synthetic oil is a must ONLY if your car is a turbo.

However it won't hurt to have it in non-turbo engines if you don't have oil leaks.It's better and gives to the engine better protection than regular(mineral) oil.

viper69 · Post by **viper69** » 04 Jul 2011, 16:49

Follow up on oil filters.... Are there any oil filter brands that are poor, be it Penzoil or any other (I'm not picking on Penzoil) just a brand name I picked from the sky.

For oil I use 10W-40 (not synthetic or blend etc), typically Castrol GTX, however at the moment there's Valvoline in it "thanks" to NTB. They used to have it..damn it!